If you’re a regular reader on PocketFives.com, you’ll know that the Remote Gambling Association, or RGA for short, had lodged a complaint with the European Commission to declare that the United States was discriminating against European operators of online gambling sites. The complaint was filed in March alleging that the United States welcomed online wagering on horse racing, state lotteries, and fantasy sports, but precluded foreign operators from offering poker, blackjack, and other online games to U.S. customer. As part of the Commission’s investigation, questionnaires were sent to the U.S. Trade Representative. The deadlines for these are quickly approaching. PocketFives.com sat down with Clive Hawkswood, the Chief Executive of the RGA, to get up to date.

Hawkswood describes the content of the questionnaires, so you can get a feel for what the Commission is searching for: “We understand that around 30 questions were posed, covering U.S. markets, world markets, U.S. law, U.S. enforcement policies, and the position of service suppliers like banks and payment processors. The questions are all designed to equip the Commission with enough data and arguments to make an objective decision about our complaint.” The questionnaires essentially served as a fact-finding mission.

Recently, the U.S. Trade Representative replied on behalf of U.S. government agencies. The results of the questionnaires have not yet been made public, as some of the information included is confidential in nature. The private information needs to be weeded out before anything is released. Hawkswood speculates what the Commission’s next move may be: “This very much depends on what the responses say and what we know. The USTR letter was very short (three pages including the covering letter), but others will give these important questions a lot more attention and for us, our reply is well over 30 pages plus various annexes. It will therefore take a while for European Commission officials to go through the answers fully. The next milestone should be the planned visit of a trade team to Washington in July when they have said that they will raise these issues directly with their counterparts there. Further down the road (we expect towards the end of this year), the Commission should be in a position to make a decision. We still feel strongly that they will conclude that there is a case for the U.S. to answer. In that event, they have the option of a negotiated settlement (which seems increasingly unlikely given the U.S.’s dismissive attitude towards the Commission) or referring the matter to the WTO for it to resolve.”

In a press release distributed by the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Iniative, Naotaka Matsukata, a former director of public policy for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, commented, “The cumulative effect of U.S. World Trade Organization related actions over the past year has forced the European Union to take this dramatic step. The line of inquiry opened by the questionnaire could reveal that the U.S. is engaging in unfair, discriminatory, and selective prosecution of European online gaming operators.”

Hawkswood describes what he sees for the internet gambling industry in the United States this year: “Unfortunately, there is no prospect of a non-discriminatory licensing regime being introduced this year and, apart from horseracing, lotteries, and fantasy sports, there will be no internet gambling industry in the U.S. What there will be is millions of U.S. consumers still seeking to gamble online and we expect that level of demand to keep on increasing.”

If you’re not familiar with the Remote Gambling Association, its website, http://www.rga.eu.com/, sums up its purpose succinctly: The RGA “represents the world's largest licensed and stock market-listed remote gambling companies and provides the industry with a single voice on all the issues of importance to regulators, legislators, and key decision makers around the world.” Its members include a veritable who’s who across the world of poker: PartyGaming, Betfair, PKR, CryptoLogic, Paddy Power, and Microgaming. It’s headquartered in London.

PocketFives.com will keep its members posted on this critical component of the fight for legalized and regulated online gambling in the United States. Thanks to Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of the RGA, for contributing to this interview.